MWC tourney trip to cost more
Other events in Vegas that week add to costs of hotels, rental cars
At halftime of Sunday’s nationally televised Mountain West basketball game on CBS Sports Network, Jon Rothstein summed up what most who follow the league already know.
With the San Diego State Aztecs, the preseason favorites who started the day eighth in the league standings, up 42-28 on the Nevada Wolf Pack, playing for first place in the league, the announcer opined: “This first 20 minutes reiterates why the Mountain West Tournament will be a must-watch during championship week.”
While most years have two or three title favorites, it seems a safe bet that next month’s men’s tournament (March 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nev.) will have at least seven fan bases with genuine thoughts of cutting down the nets at the 11-team tournament. But will anyone be there to see it? As fans around the league are finding out, Las Vegas is going to be unusually busy that week and prices to make the trip might keep many from attending.
“It’s a tough situation,” said Mountain West senior associate commissioner Dan Butterly. “It wasn’t really a possibility for us to move the dates of the event ... so we’ve been trying to work as best we can with partners in Las Vegas and members (around the league) to make sure we can still make this a great event like we feel it has been for many years.”
While ticket prices to the games have not increased, that can’t be said for other parts of making the trip.
A recent review of hotels on or near the strip in Las Vegas showed few, if any rooms available under $200 per night (more were over $300) for the weekend of the MWC’s women’s and men’s champion-
ship games. During the week, most hotel prices were two to four times their normal rates. Flights out of Albuquerque are filling fast and even rental car rates are higher than normal.
So why the big crowds? In addition to the usual college basketball tournaments in the city that week (men’s and women’s for the West Coast Conference, Mountain West and Western Athletic as well as the men’s tournament for the Pac-12), there is a NASCAR event March 12 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the every-three year CONEXPOCON/AGG convention from March 7-11.
The construction convention expects more than 150,000 attendees this year (it set an records with 125,000 in 2014).
As a result, there isn’t the usual “media headquarters” hotel for the tournament and even teams are finding problematic setting aside conference rooms for film sessions and walk-throughs.
CBS has the broadcast rights for the men’s championship game on March 12. That, and the logistical problems of trying to reschedule nonconference games, including two schools with tournaments through Christmas week, meant moving the MWC’s tournament, and conference schedule, up a week wasn’t possible, the league said.
UNM sold its initial ticket allotment of 200 and is nearly through a second batch of 300, but sales aren’t what they’ve been in the past for the usually strong Lobo contingent. Assistant athletic director for development Jalen Dominguez says it’s hard to know if the reason is due to the other events going on in Las Vegas that week and pricing, but says the school is still doing what it can to get any Lobo fan who can afford to go to the games.
“We are being proactive with the conference to make sure we are able to request more seats to accommodate our fans,” Dominguez said. “We are down on tickets sold through UNM but it is tough to fully gauge as fans have multiple outlets to purchase tickets from outside of our allotment, including from other conference schools.”
Butterly acknowledged sales league wide are slightly down.
“We’re seeing that a little bit in ticket sales, but it’s hard to determine if that’s ConExpo or parity in the league and fans are waiting to see how their team does,” Butterly said.
He added as events of that week get closer, some convention or tournament goers might cancel reservations, opening up room availability.
“Once you get here, we’re going to make sure it’s a great environment,” he said. “And, as you’ve seen, this could be one of the funnest tournaments on the men’s and women’s side that we’ve had in years, so we’re really looking forward to it.”